Acid fumes hospitalize UC Riverside student

A UC Riverside graduate student was hospitalized after he was exposed to hydrofluoric acid fumes in a science building, the Riverside County Department of Environmental Health said.

The incident happened about 11 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, according to a discharge report that the county is required to release under the California Health and Safety Code.

A graduate student was using hydrofluoric acid to clean silicon wafers in the Materials Science and Engineering building and didn’t have proper ventilation, the report said. He inhaled fumes and had difficulty breathing, so he went outside and then took himself to a hospital, the report said. He was examined and decontaminated, and the area where he’d been working was deemed safe to reoccupy.

Hydrofluoric acid has industrial purposes such as metal cleaning. Poisoning can occur if absorbed through the skin or eyes.